Employees seek first Starbucks union in city

Last edited 2:55 p.m., June 16, 2022

Employees at a Starbucks store in Springfield are looking to get on board with a rapidly growing unionization movement across the nation.

Mari Orrego, an organizer with the Chicago and Midwest Joint Board of Workers United, said employees at the 631 S. Glenstone Ave. store this morning filed paperwork for a National Labor Relations Board election. The employees are organizing with Workers United, and a vote on the unionization filing is slated to be scheduled by the NLRB, likely in two to three months, Orrego said.

The store would be the first Starbucks in the Springfield area to unionize, organizers say.

The store, located at Glenstone Avenue and Cherry Street, has 28 employees, with an "overwhelming majority" in support of organizing through the Starbucks Workers United movement, she added.

Johnie Tindle, a barista and former shift supervisor at the store who has been a Starbucks employee for nearly five years, said there's a communication gap between the corporation and employees at the service level.

"The main reason our store decided to push for unionization is that we simply did not feel heard from Starbucks corporate at all," Tindle said. "We feel like there's a huge disconnect."

Specific concerns cited by Tindle include a lack of enough employees to operate the store effectively – the line sometimes will back up onto Glenstone Avenue, for instance – and "not getting hours we need to make ends meet."

The release included a portion of a letter signed by the store's union organizing committee and supporters that was emailed today to Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX) CEO Howard Schultz.

"Our store, much like other locations in the U.S., has experienced overlooked discrepancies and wrongdoings that are being swept under the rug," the letter reads. "To further the cause of our safety and well-being, and that of service to our community, we have turned to one another to seek solutions for the needs that Starbucks (Corp.) has created."

Data at UnionElections.org indicates more than 100 Starbucks stores have unionized nationwide.

In a recent interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times, Schultz said he opposes unionization at the company's stores.

"We don’t believe that a third party should lead our people. And so, we are in a battle for the hearts and minds of our people," he said in the interview.

Reached via email, a Starbucks corporate spokesperson said "we are listening and learning from the partners in these stores as we always do across the country."

"From the beginning, we’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed," the spokesperson said.